Trailer For Tarsem’s Singh’s ‘Mirror Mirror’ Shows An Inferior Snow White

We’ve already seen the good-looking and solid trailer for Universal’s gritty take on Snow White called ‘Snow White & The Huntsman’, but we still waited out to see a first look of the Tarsem Singh (director of Immortals) take on the material with his upcoming ‘Mirror Mirror’ which is more of a family film. Now that we get the trailer, it’s clear which looks like the better film so far.

Relativity’s Mirror Mirror is a spectacular reimagining of the classic fairy tale starring Oscar winner Julia Roberts as the Queen, Lily Collins as Snow White, Armie Hammer as Prince Alcott, Sean Bean as the King and Nathan Lane as the Queen’s hapless and bungling servant, Brighton. An evil queen steals control of a kingdom and an exiled princess enlists the help of seven resourceful rebels to win back her birthright in a spirited adventure comedy filled with jealousy, romance and betrayal that will capture the imagination of audiences the world over.

Visionary director Tarsem Singh rewrites fairy tale history as a wicked enchantress (Roberts) schemes and scrambles for control of a spirited orphan’s (Collins) throne and the attention of a charming prince (Hammer). When Snow White’s beauty wins the heart of the prince that she desperately pursues, the Queen banishes her to the forest, where a ravening man-eating beast hungrily awaits.

Rescued by a band of diminutive highway robbers, Snow White grows into an indomitable young woman determined to take back her realm from the treacherous Queen. With the support of her subjects, she roars into action in an epic battle that blends spectacle, magic and contemporary humor in Singh’s signature, jaw-dropping visual style.

First of all, the film is being sold on Tarsem Singh’s visual style. While the visual style was excellent in ‘The Fall’ and very good in ‘Immortals’, this looks more of Tim Burton’s style than Tarsem’s. There is a level of beauty and vibrancy in what we see, but the sets and the design looks more like a TV movie than an actual big budget film. Aside from that, the best thing of the film is Julia Roberts playing the Queen in a quirky new way. Too bad everything else looks mediocre, and even the Queen seems way too focused in the trailer without much of anything else. Arnie Hammer looks charming, but I really hope they aren’t after making a third-rate version of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ because as mediocre as that movie was, it still looked better than this one and had the charm of Johnny Depp to boot.

Trailer below.